The deployment of a headlamp positioned in the vicinity of a user's forehead is a long-known technique to provide hands free lighting when needed. One technique for deploying such hands-free lighting is to attach a headlamp to elastic bands that can circumscribe a user's head or helmet. An exemplary prior art accessory mounting hand is shown in FIG. 11A. The elastic bands retain the light or lamp against the forehead while the user engages in a desired activity. This elastic band technique has also been used for deploying small, point-of-view cameras, such as the Go-Pro brand camera, on a user's head, hat or helmet. Many users eschew the elastic band mounts because of a variety of reasons, including vanity and discomfort.
Other techniques for deploying an accessory such as a light or point of view (“POV”) camera involve attaching a mounting apparatus that is adapted to receive the light or camera to a baseball cap. The currently available mounts intended to attach to a baseball cap come in a variety of structural configurations. They all, however, suffer from a wide array of deficiencies. For example, one style of mount requires that the brim or bill of the hat be pierced. This prior art technique is shown in FIG. 11B. In this style mount, the accessory-receiving portion of the mount attaches to a post that pierces through the hat's brim. This type mount is undesirable because it physically deforms the subject cap in permanent fashion. Also, the hole through which the post is pierced can loosen with time, causing the mount to undesirably shake and wobble.
Other accessory mounts intended for attachment to the brim of a hat are known as well. Some mounts use an alligator clip arrangement that clips to the bill of a cap. With this type of mount, the alligator clip slides over the front of the cap bill and holds an accessory device either above or below the bill. An example of this prior art device is shown in FIG. 11C. The prototypical alligator clip is formed from two panels that are connected by a metal spring. The spring is positioned between the two panels and near one end of them. The interpositioned spring biases the panels so that their ends opposite the spring are forced into contact with each other. The inner surfaces of the panels are serrated in some form, assumedly on the assumption that such serration enhances the ability of the clip to grip whatever structure (e.g., cap bill) inserted between the two panels. Alligator clip mounts have several deficiencies which make their performance less than desirable for use with accessory devices. In one instance, the alligator clip is bulky and its portion that is positioned underneath the bill will provide a visual distraction or obstruction. Secondly, this type of clip focuses its gripping force and brim contacting surfaces at one end of the clip—the end not localized at the cap brim edge. As a result, alligator clip type mounts do not provide sufficient grip to keep a heavier device like a POV camera in place when the user is involved in any type of vigorous activity. During such activity the clip tends to slide transversely along the brim front causing the camera angle to change.
Some bill accessory mounts utilize as their bill attachment mechanism a molded plastic clip or formed metal clip. In contrast to the alligator clip mount that uses the three of a metal spring to urge the panels to a point of contact, this type of clip eschews the metal spring in favor of integrally molded or formed rigid panels resiliently connected at a meeting point. The clip attaches to a cap bill simply by pushing the cap bill between the clip's panels. Examples of this type of prior art mounting clip are shown in FIGS. 11D-11G. These types of clips are intended to hold onto the cap bill through some level of friction between the clip panels and the inserted bill. At best, these slip-on plastic or metal mounting clips work well with small, lightweight devices, like mini-LED lights, that mount below the brim of a cap (FIG. 11D)). The currently available versions do not work well with heavier devices like POV cameras. In this respect the clips tend to slide across and off the cap bill because they: a) do not create enough clamping force with the bill; b) do not provide for sufficient frictional contact with the bill; or both. As a result, a user deploying one of the molded plastic or formed metal clips must restrict and monitor his or her physical movements so as not to move too violently and cause the POV camera to move or fall off the cap.